Steve Sutanto
I work on complicated systems, from the early decisions about what's worth building to the final screens where people land.
Most of my work happens in the messy middle, after someone has an idea and before anything actually ships.
I started out in consumer products. Marketplaces, eCommerce, online dating, where you get about thirty seconds to convince a stranger. Lately it's finance, healthcare and insurance, where those thirty seconds also have to survive a compliance review. Different stakes, same person on the other end.
I don't hand work over a wall. The systems got more complicated, the people using them didn't, so I start by asking questions until the real problem turns up, which is rarely the one in the brief, and finish by building the thing to find out whether it holds. Right now that means working prototypes in Claude Code pushed to a live link, so engineering gets something running instead of a picture of something running.
Underneath all of it is curiosity. I'd rather stay with a problem than hand it off, whether the answer turns up in discovery or three layers down in a prototype I'm building myself.
Deciding what to build
UX strategy · Product thinking · SaaS & enterprise platforms · Market fit · Product design
Untangling complicated systems
Systems & platform design · Developer experience (SDKs, APIs) · Embedded flows · Workflow automation · Secure interfaces
Working with people
Mentoring · Making the case for design · Working across teams · Speaking and writing · Client relationships
Designing the thing itself
Wireframes and design concepts · Interaction design · Information architecture · Prototyping · User testing · Design systems
Prototyping with AI
Working prototypes instead of mockups, built in Claude Code and shipped through GitHub to a live link, plus agents and skills that teach those tools how the team works.
Let's talk about the work.
Tell me what you're building and where it's stuck.I read everything and reply within a couple of days, even when it isn't a fit.